Israel worried US may drop demand for Iran to cease enriching uranium to speed up negotiations — WSJ report

Israel is concerned that the US, in its haste to sign a new nuclear agreement with Iran, may drop key clauses that it sees as a red line while also effectively curtailing Israel’s ability to carry out any military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The report comes after US President Donald Trump confirmed earlier this week that he had warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against taking military action that could disrupt the negotiations.

Both the US and Israel have agreed that any deal must include a requirement for Iran to cease all uranium enrichment activity, and US special envoy Steve Witkoff has insisted that this is a red line he will not back down from.

But as Iran has said it will not agree to this condition, insisting it enriches uranium for civilian purposes, the Journal reports that Israeli officials believe the US may drop the demand and proceed with a less comprehensive agreement rather than risk collapsing the negotiations.

While it is unlikely that Israel will be satisfied with this outcome — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in the past that “a bad deal is worse than no deal — it will be hard pressed to launch any military offensive without US support, the Journal estimates, citing Israeli security experts.

Confirming that the two countries aren’t seeing eye-to-eye as to the best way to approach a new nuclear agreement, an unnamed senior US official tells the news outlet that there are “some disagreements with Israel over how to approach this right now.”

The official seemingly indicates, however, that the US could eventually back Israel’s pursuit of military action, “if they [Iran] don’t want to make a deal.”